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Step 9: Control Delivery

The previous steps have helped to secure alignment and transparency to the project governance, scope and approach of the projects. Now it is time to secure control of the delivery. The agreements between project managers and team managers/members are often too loose and informal if a project management method like PRINCE2 is not applied. PRINCE2 comes with a few good tools to help us along:

The Product Description. The description of the deliverable, what quality is needed, who will use it, what activities are needed to produce it and how the quality will be assured.

The Work Package. This is the tools for a Project Manager to pass responsibility for work formally to a Team Manager (or team member). The project manager and the team manager agrees on time, cost, techniques, processes, procedures, approval method etc. and document this in the Work Package. The Work Package contains one or more Product Descriptions.

The Quality Register. This is where the Team Manager documents that a product has been quality assured using the agreed quality method, by whom and when.

By implementing the PRINCE2 tools above, you achieve the following:

It creates an arena for dialogue between Project Manager and Team Manager.

You get clear commitment from Team Managers.

There is more clarity of scope and less chance of surprises and tasks falling between Chairs.

You get tracking of what is done and how it was approved.

Do not underestimate the importance of the dialogue between Project Manager and Team Managers when applying these tools. Especially in the beginning, sending work packages on e-mail without any upfront dialogue will easily cause frustration and resistance instead of ownership and commitment.

Note that it is the Project Manager’s responsibility to create the product descriptions, but this doesn’t happen in a vacuum and dialogues with subject matter experts, team managers and others are needed to create good product descriptions. Whatever you do, do not send the Product Description or Work package template to a Team Manager and ask for it to be filled in as this would likely trigger negative reactions.